Friday, April 15, 2011

Gradient Fabric Dying Workshop with Joy-Lily

Last Sunday my Flying Geese Guild hosted this class at Bear's Quilt Shop in Garden Grove. We were to bring 3 white or white on white fat quarters and wear our work clothes.

While there were about 16+ people we didn't make as much of a mess as one might think. We had a great time and cool fabric was made by all.

Joy-Lily was a lot of fun and she explained about the birds and bees of fabric dyeing. She also came to our guild Monday night to share her gallery of art with such a variety of mediums. For a special treat, visit http://www.joy-lily.com/ to see her beautiful gallery.

For this project we used hair color bottles of dye that was cut in half and half again to get the different gradients. The soda ash was added at the end and then they were set in the sun for a bit and then rinsed.

For the first one we just kept it simple. I used a white on white print and a magenta color. I can see using this for applique flowers how the petals are dark and light. Also Joy-Lily had some great ideas for putting together gradients in pieced quilts.

So here is he back.....

For our next one, we experimented a little. I used another white on while and let the fabric print decide where the dye needed to go. I used mostly blue with a hint of red dye for this one.

...and as my friend Hilary pointed out even the back looks good. I could see using this softer version of the print for a complely different look.

Ok so this next one is why you don't just run screaming through the room with fabric dye! By this time, I was just twisting and playing. Another white on white, that I did without really think about the color combination, eek.

In his case the back looks a little better.

Watch the ugly one get the most use, HA! Isn't that just the way.

A little plug for Bear's Quilt Shop in Garden Grove, CA A great place to learn fabric dying among other quilty things. They have a lot of great samples and do classes on demand for small groups. A bunch of us are thinking about visit them this summer for another fabric dying workshop.